Read this part first
Do not go outside. Do not go on the roof. Do not get on a ladder. No roof is worth a life. Every roofer in Florida, including us, stays on the ground until the wind drops. If you are in immediate danger, call 911, and understand that emergency services often suspend response once sustained winds reach roughly forty five miles per hour. Follow instructions from Pasco County Emergency Management.
This is the stage where a roofing company is least useful to you and most likely to be asked for help anyway. We get calls at two in the morning during storms, and the honest answer is almost always the same: we cannot come until the wind stops, and neither can anyone else who is telling you the truth.
What we can do is tell you what to do in the meantime, because there is a real difference between a family that handles the next six hours well and one that does not. It is usually the difference between replacing six feet of drywall and replacing a whole ceiling.
What You Can and Cannot Control
You cannot control what happens on the outside of your house. Once shingles start leaving, they are leaving. Accepting that early is genuinely useful, because the impulse to go do something about it is exactly what gets people hurt.
What you can control is entirely on the inside. Electrical safety, where your family is standing, how much water reaches your floors and belongings, and whether a saturated ceiling comes down in one piece or drains into a bucket on your terms. Those four things are worth a lot of money and they are all done from indoors.
The Order of Operations
When water starts coming in, do these in this order. The sequence matters, because people tend to start with the buckets and never get to the breaker.
First, cut the power to the affected area at the breaker panel if water is anywhere near a light fixture, ceiling fan, outlet, or attic wiring. If the panel itself is wet or you would have to stand in water to reach it, leave that part of the house alone entirely.
Second, move people and belongings. Everyone out of the room, especially children and pets, because saturated drywall gets heavy and can come down without much warning. Then lift what you can off the floor and cover what you cannot move.
Third, contain the water. Buckets and totes under the drips, with an old towel in the bottom of each to stop the splashing. Check them often. A hurricane can deliver rain for twelve to twenty hours and a five gallon bucket fills faster than people expect.
Fourth, photograph it as it happens. Video with the storm audible in the background establishes timing in a way nothing else does, and carriers do pay attention to whether damage happened during the event or afterward.
The bulging ceiling
A sagging, bulging spot in a ceiling is a pocket of water sitting on top of the drywall. Left alone it grows until the whole section fails at once, which is far more damage and genuinely dangerous if somebody is underneath.
The safer move is to release it deliberately. Confirm the power to that area is off, put a bucket underneath, stand to the side rather than directly below, and use a screwdriver to make a small hole at the lowest point of the bulge. Let it drain. You will patch a few small holes instead of replacing a ceiling.
The Eye Is Not the End
Wait for an official all clear, not a lull. The calm inside the eye of a storm can last half an hour or more, and the wind on the far side arrives suddenly and from the opposite direction. Every season somebody in Florida goes out during the eye to look at their roof and gets caught by the back half. If a section of roof is already gone, close interior doors to contain the water, move everyone to an interior room with no exterior walls, and wait it out.
When Not to Spend Money With Us
If your ceiling has one small stain and nothing is actively dripping after the storm, you do not need an emergency call at emergency prices. Photograph it, watch it, and get on the schedule for a normal inspection. A stain that is not growing is not an emergency. And be careful about anyone offering to fix your roof at three in the morning during a storm. That is not a roofer.
When it is genuinely over and safe, call Farrell Roofing at (727) 845-7663. We do emergency roof repair and tarping across Port Richey, New Port Richey, Hudson, Holiday, Trinity, Tarpon Springs, Palm Harbor, Odessa, Land O' Lakes, and Spring Hill. Our shop has been on Commerce Ave in Port Richey since 2003 and our Florida license is CCC1327707. We are not going anywhere after the storm.